Researchers from Harvard University and other institutions argue that ultra-processed foods should be treated like 'tobacco' rather than food and regulated accordingly.
From Tobacco to Ultraprocessed Food: How Industry Engineering Fuels the Epidemic of Preventable Disease - GEARHARDT - The Milbank Quarterly - Wiley Online Library
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0009.70066
Ultra-processed foods should be treated more like cigarettes than food – study | Global development | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/feb/03/public-health-ultra-processed-foods-regulation-cigarettes-addiction-nutrition
Ultra-processed foods, such as snacks and carbonated drinks, are widely available worldwide, but their consumption has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of death , cancer, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other risk factors, as well as with reduced sperm quality and adverse effects on cognitive performance .
Researchers from Harvard, Michigan, and Duke universities compared ultra-processed foods with tobacco, a globally distributed food product known to have adverse health effects. 'Tobacco and ultra-processed foods share many important commonalities: both are industrially engineered substances that deliver powerful sensory experiences, and in some cases, both are manufactured and owned by the same companies,' the researchers wrote.
The research team used data from multiple fields, including addiction science, nutrition, and public health history, to examine the similarities between ultra-processed foods and tobacco. They argue that, just as tobacco is not simply a 'nicotine delivery device' but has a delivery system designed to maximize its appeal, ultra-processed foods are not simply 'nutritional sources' but are highly engineered products optimized for pleasure.
For example, the paper compares the dopamine-activating effect of nicotine in tobacco to the pleasurable sensations and dopamine-activating effects of carbohydrates and fats in ultra-processed foods, both of which are made from naturally occurring substances and carefully designed to stimulate the human reward system.
Just as the pleasure of smoking a cigarette peaks and then quickly fades, the pleasure of ultra-processed foods is designed to fade quickly, encouraging consumers to consume the same ultra-processed foods repeatedly.
The researchers also point out that the supposedly healthy claims of ultra-processed foods, such as 'low-fat' and 'sugar-free,' are similar to the way cigarette manufacturers promoted filter cigarettes in the 1950s as 'reducing the harms of smoking,' delaying regulation by decades, even though cigarette filters actually had no significant effect.
The researchers argued that 'many ultra-processed foods share more characteristics with tobacco than with minimally processed fruits and vegetables and therefore require regulation commensurate with the significant public health risks they pose.'
Co-author Professor Ashley Gearhart of the University of Michigan said that people who are addicted to ultra-processed foods experience an addictive feeling similar to that of tobacco. Gearhart argued that people should be able to distinguish harmful ultra-processed foods from other foods in the same way they distinguish alcoholic beverages from other drinks.
However, some researchers believe that while there are certainly similarities between tobacco and ultra-processed foods, the comparison made in this paper goes too far. Professor Martin Warren, chief scientific officer of the Centre for Specialised Food Research at the Quadram Institute in the UK, said questions remain about whether ultra-processed foods are inherently addictive in a pharmacological sense, like nicotine, or whether they exploit learned preferences or reward conditioning in consumers.
'We also need to consider whether the adverse health effects are due to the ingredients in ultra-processed foods themselves, or whether the problem is that nutrient-rich foods are being replaced by nutrient-poor ultra-processed foods. This distinction is important because it influences whether regulation of ultra-processed foods should follow the example of tobacco regulation, or whether we should prioritize diet quality, allocation, and diversification of the food system,' Warren said.
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